Montrose, CO — City Councilors met for their regular meeting Tuesday evening, October 20, to appoint new members to the Youth Council and Historic Preservation Commission and consider a number of new city ordinances.
Councilors and staff met in Council Chambers at 107 South Cascade while maintaining COVID-19 social distancing protocols. The public was invited to attend via the Zoom platform. Councilors Roy Anderson, Dave Bowman, Barbara Bynum, Dave Frank, and Doug Glaspell met in chambers for about 31 minutes. The following is a summary of the primary topics discussed during the meeting.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Councilors voted unanimously to approve the minutes of both the October 5, 2020, special meeting, and the October 6 regular meeting. The city’s archive of past meeting minutes can be found at: CityofMontrose.org/ArchiveCenter.
WATCH Tuesday’s meeting here.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING SCHEDULE CHANGE
City Councilors voted unanimously to change the time of their Tuesday, November 3, regular meeting from 6 p.m. to 10 a.m. due to Election Day activities.
YOUTH CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS
City Councilors voted unanimously to appoint Gunnison Clamp, Josie Coulter, Harrison Hall, Grace Hotsenpiller, Zack Oldroyd, Cheyenne Storrs, and Mari Wilson to the city’s Youth Council for the 2020-2021 term.
The Youth Council was established by the City Council to encourage greater youth participation in the city’s government and is charged with actively advising City Council with thoughtful recommendations on issues concerning youth and assisting city staff in considering youth perspectives in its planning efforts.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION APPOINTMENTS
City Councilors voted unanimously to appoint Ian Atha, John Eloe, and Kenneth Huff to three vacant positions on the city’s Historic Preservation Commission.
The council voted from a pool of four applications from Atha, Eloe, Huff, and Patrick Dwyer.
The commission is appointed by the council, and at least 60 percent of its members are residents of the city and at least 40 percent of the members are professionals or individuals with extensive expertise in a preservation-related discipline including, but not limited to, history, architecture, landscape architecture, American studies, American civilization, cultural geography, cultural anthropology, planning or archaeology.
Members serve three-year, staggered terms from the date of their appointment. A chairperson presides over the commission's meetings, one member serves as the vice-chairperson, and one member serves as secretary. The members so designated serve in these capacities for terms of one year.
ORDINANCE 2509: UNREIN ADDITION II ANNEXATION
Councilors voted unanimously to approve the ordinance on second reading relating to the Unrein Addition, a new annexation into the city.
Senior City Planner Amy Sharp presented information to the council regarding the small strip of land, less than an acre in size, that is to be included in the Unrein Addition, which is already part of the city. According to Sharp, the .87-acre orphaned strip of land was not included when the main portion of the Unrein property was annexed in the early 2000s. The property is still identified as being located in Montrose County, yet the entire property is surrounded by incorporated property. The .87-acre annexation is a formal cleanup of city maps and will simply be added to the large Unrein Addition.
ORDINANCE 2510
Councilors voted unanimously on an ordinance on second reading zoning the Unrein Addition as a "B-2" highway commercial district.
ORDINANCE 2512
City Councilors voted unanimously to approve an ordinance authorizing the disposal of real property owned by the City of Montrose. This gap parcel disposal is associated with the initial Adamson Family Trust #1 Land Exchange, which occurred in 2017. Council will consider all of the information in this memo in making a decision. Following the final approval of the ordinance, a quitclaim deed will be recorded to transfer the property over to the Adamson Family Trust #1.
Sharp said the property is located east of Chipeta Road, south of the Clifford E. Baldridge Regional Park, west of Sunset Mesa Road, and northwest of the Grand View Cemetery. The city completed a land exchange with the Adamson Family Trust No. 1 in 2017 to obtain property off Anderson Road. It included approximately 11.93 acres owned by the city near Sunset Mesa and approximately 16.2 acres owned by the Trust off Anderson Road. A small, 0.28-acre city-owned gap parcel was not transferred to the trust at that time. An additional survey was required for the gap parcel, and the parties did not want to delay the land exchange while waiting for the survey. The survey is now prepared and the parties are ready to complete this final portion of the land exchange.
The council approved the ordinance on first reading Tuesday. The second and final reading vote will take place Tuesday, November 3, at the regular meeting.
ORDINANCE 2513
City Councilors voted unanimously to approve an ordinance authorizing the sale of the property that served as the site for the Russell Stover candy company for the amount of $1.
In 1972 the city attracted the company to town with an incentives package that included land located on Colorado Highway 550, or South Townsend Avenue, with a condition that the company had the option to buy the land for $1.
City Attorney Stephen Alcorn said the company notified the city in September that it intended to purchase the property. Alcorn said the company was working with the Montrose Economic Development Corporation, MEDC, to sell the retail building, located directly off Townsend Avenue, and the manufacturing plant to two separate entities that are investing in the locations.
Alcorn said the city intends to collect the $1 from the company following the sale.
STAFF REPORTS
Finance Director Shani Wittenberg delivered a Sales, Use and Excise Tax Report for the month of August, noting that collections were up during the month. Wittenberg said that the closure of I-70 in August due to the wildfires burning in Glenwood Canyon rerouted many travelers through Montrose, boosting the local economy.
View the report here:
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All City Council meetings are recorded and made available online via on the city’s website and cable channels 191 for Charter subscribers and 970 for Elevate subscribers. Replays of council meetings are also broadcast at 6 p.m. on the same channels on days that council is not in session.
In addition, each regular meeting is archived on the City of Montrose’s YouTube channel.
Residents can watch all regular City Council meetings and work sessions live through the city’s website at CityOfMontrose.org/Video.
For more city news visit CityOfMontrose.org.